I agree with Sensei's Divining Top being on the watch list. There is no card that I can think of that better represents: 'Play This First and Win.' It is insidiously good. I mainly play control decks in 100CS, so it would be a big loss to me, but I can't stand that in a control vs control match, getting a turn 1 Top essentially means that you win and there is little to nothing that your opponent can do about it. If it were up to me, I'd ban it ASAP.
Searing Wind is another phenomenal way to rack up fast damage with Dream Halls. Conflux can grab you two Cruel Ultimatums, a Searing Wind and 2 cards to discard to one of the previous 3 (and odds are, something you draw with the Ultimatums will let you cast the Wind).
Progenitus is indeed a great card for the deck, not just for its size and unstoppability, but because you can discard it to pay for a Conflux and then retrieve it with the same Conflux.
Other variants some friends have been playing use Beacon of Tomorrows or Time Stretch to give Progenitus extra turns to do his job.
A few mono-blue versions have worked well using Time Stretch and Inkwell Leviathan. The nice thing about going mono-blue is that if the Dream Halls gets countered, you still have a game to play.
Ancient Tomb or City of Traitors (when we get it) work very well to help accelerate out the Dream Halls (and make you rely less on Dark Ritual).
I really liked the formatting of your article when it came to the battle options part, with card links and nice headers and a quick description. It was very easy to digest the information.
I think one of the problems with the bannings is that they seem very inconsistant and random, and the only reason I can see for them is based on the results of 1-2 premier events. All of the sanctioned tournaments have several big tournaments before a banning decision is announced, while 100 singleton may or may not have a banning announcement every month? Based on perhaps 1 premier event? I don't think you can really draw any meaningful conclusions based on that. If you ban cards after every event, people will have no way of knowing what the tier 1 decks are because they are changing too quickly.
I think unbanning Jitte would probably tame the mono-red decks a bit. A jitte on a protection from red creature is pretty good against a red player.
Also Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft is actually a three card combo (need a basic land) Also the fact that it needs an extra turn to attack and is shut down by moat makes it one of the lesser "2" card combos. Most of the time the "combo" decks I've seen are control decks that stabilize the game then try to win with one of the other 2 card combos such as Charbelchar + Mana Severence.
Are you going to talk about cards that should be on a watchlist? I personally feel that Moat and Sensei's Diving Top should at least be on a watchlist
I'd give the written article above 4 stars. It has all the key points from the half hour podcast. Informative enough. But I listened the podcast for the first time and to me, it's a waste of time. Why not making it better?
- Too long. Just do not try to put things on debate. The things you are trying to discuss is not saving the world from Swine flu or something. If you could just give information directly, it would be so much easy to listen and would save us (listeners and readers) time.
- Asian guy is repeating the same things of what the other guy says. He just "definitely agrees on things, definitely 50 times, and repeats the same things just's been discussed again and again. Only time he gave an information about something was Sanity deck. I'd suggest if he does not feel that he has to talk, it would be much much better.
- You might want to seperate the issues that need to be discussed between two of you. It would prevent repeating the things.
Again, this is not an offensive critic. It's just a critic to help you guys to make things better if you care. I really appreciate the time every writer spends on the FUN and Informative articles here. May be I should give another try for the next installments of these podcasts. May be I just listened a weak one. I don't know...
There is another catagori to stopping storm in classic. Beatdown! even something as small as 4 damage with light disruption is a very real way to win because of how the current classic storm decks obtain victory. Every damage you get through is one less card for necro and makes adn riskyer.
I've never actually played with Dream Halls, but that looks to be a fun little deck.
I'm wondering if it wouldn't be worth it to add a couple of Progenitus to the deck though.
A giant, pretty much unstoppable, monster that you can power out with literally any other
card in your hand seems like it might fit as an alternate condition for the combo.
Ok, I will try. If be some problem, I will contact with you. It's good to know a people just like you. For now I sent a message to Wizards Customer Support(show me message: "...NOT submited yet", so I will wait for answer). I'm new in MtG, I've stardted playing on september 2008, but I don't know all rules, but I train, try to remember all of this. If I start play MtGO, it will be new experience for me. This way I will train my skills, tactics etc.
For the Kaleidoscope article I will first play in at least ten 2mans and will then talk about those games. There is still time for Alara Reborn to be online, so those game reports might help to some of the players who would like to get into the format but don't know what to play.
The second part of the article will then cover some post-Alara Reborn theories.
Against any aggro deck like Naya or Mono White, I'm the control player. You can also see that from the number of removal I have in deck. So even though a turn 1 Noble Hierarch against those decks is a plus, it isn't always needed. In fact a turn 5 Noble Hierarch is also acceptable so that I can cast Martial Coup on turn 6 against aggro decks.
Against 5CC or other control decks I'm the aggro player and I would very much like to have Noble Hierarch on table on turn 1 but wouldn't cry or curse my luck if I don't. Because they always play CIPT lands and it feels like I'm always 1 turn ahead of them (which works ALWAYS to my advantage).
So even though a turn 1 Noble Hierarch is a fantastic start, it isn't a must for the deck.
The old codes aren't supposed to be supported anymore, however, since they didn't put an expiration date on them they still will honor them. You'll have to contact Wizards' Customer Support at http://wizards.custhelp.com (you'll need to create an account there). They should be able to get you set up. If not, please email me at erikfriborg AT gmail DOT com and I'll put you in touch with folks inside WotC who can help you!. :)
Aren't you worried about being able to cast Noble Hierarch on turn 1? Only four Forests. The Exotic Orchids MIGHT work... IF you're on the draw and IF they play a green source. Seems a bit optimistic.
Girdsman: From the release of Alara Reborn, I have seen a change in the metagame in which it has seemed to shift towards majority of BW Tokens along with new versions of Jund Aggro with the new cascade mechanic. This hasn't been the easiest metagame to compete against. The new vindicate doesn't help my deck at all and has been quite dreadful for me, at the same time your concern against fast aggro in my previous playtesting if they tend to get the obscene starts you can't compete against them. If they don't get the uber ridiculous draws then you are game versus any deck in the metagame since Kithkin, Mono-red and fast elves have 1 game plan and the Platinum Angels in the sideboard help alot versus all of these decks. Your boarding strategy verus aggro decks I tend to base it off there main deck or from what I have seen yet I always bring in 4x Platinum Angel and depending on what matchup specifically that would be all as I would take out the 4xPRimalclux as Path to Exile is widely used in those matchups. If you were to add Kitchen Finks then you would need to reduce a key matchup in removing a card for it and that being said this deck tends to win fast rather than slow as Kitchen Finks is a 3/2 body and against the matchups you want it against your deck should be tuned to beat it.
ConfusedMage: As stated above, this deck does quite well versus non-ridiculous fast aggro draws. After sideboard you defineatly bring in the 4x Platinum Angels as people don't expect them and they can stall a game if needed in order for you to win.
Feel free to comment and I will gladly respond, and thank you all for the comments.
@Bobby: Knight of the Reliquary works better for me than Giltspire. Especially against 5CC Giltspire has few targets if none, whereas Kinght of the Reliquary gets +2/+2 each turn (sac a forest get a panorama, sac the panorama and get a forest -> 2 lands in the yard in one turn). Knight of the Reliquary is my tool for games that don't end when they should end, if you know what I mean. When you have a Giltspire and your opponent has two 4/4 dragons, he wouldn't hesitate to attack. But when he has those 4/4's and you have a 10/10 Knight of the Reliquary, things look very differently.
@Hammy: I too think that Lorescale Coatl is a nice card but also think that it isn't that good to be tournament worthy. The ALA Block format, as you also know, is very fast and aggressive. Lorescale Coatl gets bigger in time and unfortunately "time" is scarce in Block.
@Hammy continues: Of course you're right; I'm looking at the future with the eyes and the mind and the knowledge and the experience of the past. But isn't it always like that? I merely tried to point out the cards one should expect to see more frequently than others.
There are actually two deck types which might emerge after this new block which I haven't mention in the article: R/W Boros and R/G Aggro. We should keep an eye on those decks as there are already plenty of new & old cards to build Tier-1 such decks.
@Hierarch44: But I think that we can at least agree on Vindicate and Pernicious Deed :)).
@Walkerdog: That depends on the format you are talking about. In almost all the formats, there are ways to cripple greedy manabases from Wasteland in Classic and Ghost Quarter in Extended to Fulminator Mage in Standard. But you're right that In ALA Block we don't have a way to punish such mana bases. But don't you think that Anathemancer is a little bit too much (considering it is Anathemancer + himself Unearth-ed from the graveyard (play it, sac to Bone Splinters, play it again))?
I understand what you're saying and I think that you're right too in what you're saying (considering you're talking about ALA Block format), but I still think that it is way too powerful.
Anathemancer was printed because there are very few hosers for multi-color mana-bases right now. Land D costs 4-5 mostly and there isn't much in the way of options for punishing otherwise-wonderful manabases. Now we have one.
and umm you can try to make the comparisions but the dudes who write these articles actually ...REALLY ACTUALLY.. PLAY IN TOURNAMENTS ,DAILYS ,...q pros they are mtgo top 8ers which is pudding or rather proof in
One card is missing from your Bant deck....Knight of New Alara. This will be one of the first cards i toss into my bant deck. It's kinda funny how i'm not the only one to think that Bant is going to be VERY strong once reborn hits. Loved the artical, I've been running a Bant deck for the past week or so and it hasn't let me down yet, Turn 3 swining with Giltspire double strike for the 10 is just awesome!
t1- noble
t2 -Gilt
t3- Rafiq
So many times I have hit that combo and every time it's just a shock and awe that it just happened :)
another crazy useful article m8 ;)
I would add the bomberman which is also a pretty nice combo win condition to complete the overview.
go on man & take care
I agree with Sensei's Divining Top being on the watch list. There is no card that I can think of that better represents: 'Play This First and Win.' It is insidiously good. I mainly play control decks in 100CS, so it would be a big loss to me, but I can't stand that in a control vs control match, getting a turn 1 Top essentially means that you win and there is little to nothing that your opponent can do about it. If it were up to me, I'd ban it ASAP.
Searing Wind is another phenomenal way to rack up fast damage with Dream Halls. Conflux can grab you two Cruel Ultimatums, a Searing Wind and 2 cards to discard to one of the previous 3 (and odds are, something you draw with the Ultimatums will let you cast the Wind).
Progenitus is indeed a great card for the deck, not just for its size and unstoppability, but because you can discard it to pay for a Conflux and then retrieve it with the same Conflux.
Other variants some friends have been playing use Beacon of Tomorrows or Time Stretch to give Progenitus extra turns to do his job.
A few mono-blue versions have worked well using Time Stretch and Inkwell Leviathan. The nice thing about going mono-blue is that if the Dream Halls gets countered, you still have a game to play.
Ancient Tomb or City of Traitors (when we get it) work very well to help accelerate out the Dream Halls (and make you rely less on Dark Ritual).
I really liked the formatting of your article when it came to the battle options part, with card links and nice headers and a quick description. It was very easy to digest the information.
I think one of the problems with the bannings is that they seem very inconsistant and random, and the only reason I can see for them is based on the results of 1-2 premier events. All of the sanctioned tournaments have several big tournaments before a banning decision is announced, while 100 singleton may or may not have a banning announcement every month? Based on perhaps 1 premier event? I don't think you can really draw any meaningful conclusions based on that. If you ban cards after every event, people will have no way of knowing what the tier 1 decks are because they are changing too quickly.
I think unbanning Jitte would probably tame the mono-red decks a bit. A jitte on a protection from red creature is pretty good against a red player.
Also Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft is actually a three card combo (need a basic land) Also the fact that it needs an extra turn to attack and is shut down by moat makes it one of the lesser "2" card combos. Most of the time the "combo" decks I've seen are control decks that stabilize the game then try to win with one of the other 2 card combos such as Charbelchar + Mana Severence.
Are you going to talk about cards that should be on a watchlist? I personally feel that Moat and Sensei's Diving Top should at least be on a watchlist
Suppression Field is also great at disrupting mana since fetch lands are not a fan of suppression field in play.
Yep that's definitely true, if you can get some early damage through then it's much harder for those decks to seal the deal. Good call!
I'd give the written article above 4 stars. It has all the key points from the half hour podcast. Informative enough. But I listened the podcast for the first time and to me, it's a waste of time. Why not making it better?
- Too long. Just do not try to put things on debate. The things you are trying to discuss is not saving the world from Swine flu or something. If you could just give information directly, it would be so much easy to listen and would save us (listeners and readers) time.
- Asian guy is repeating the same things of what the other guy says. He just "definitely agrees on things, definitely 50 times, and repeats the same things just's been discussed again and again. Only time he gave an information about something was Sanity deck. I'd suggest if he does not feel that he has to talk, it would be much much better.
- You might want to seperate the issues that need to be discussed between two of you. It would prevent repeating the things.
Again, this is not an offensive critic. It's just a critic to help you guys to make things better if you care. I really appreciate the time every writer spends on the FUN and Informative articles here. May be I should give another try for the next installments of these podcasts. May be I just listened a weak one. I don't know...
There is another catagori to stopping storm in classic. Beatdown! even something as small as 4 damage with light disruption is a very real way to win because of how the current classic storm decks obtain victory. Every damage you get through is one less card for necro and makes adn riskyer.
Interesting.
I've never actually played with Dream Halls, but that looks to be a fun little deck.
I'm wondering if it wouldn't be worth it to add a couple of Progenitus to the deck though.
A giant, pretty much unstoppable, monster that you can power out with literally any other
card in your hand seems like it might fit as an alternate condition for the combo.
Ok, I will try. If be some problem, I will contact with you. It's good to know a people just like you. For now I sent a message to Wizards Customer Support(show me message: "...NOT submited yet", so I will wait for answer). I'm new in MtG, I've stardted playing on september 2008, but I don't know all rules, but I train, try to remember all of this. If I start play MtGO, it will be new experience for me. This way I will train my skills, tactics etc.
C U :)
Thank you.
For the Kaleidoscope article I will first play in at least ten 2mans and will then talk about those games. There is still time for Alara Reborn to be online, so those game reports might help to some of the players who would like to get into the format but don't know what to play.
The second part of the article will then cover some post-Alara Reborn theories.
LE
The deck works like this:
Against any aggro deck like Naya or Mono White, I'm the control player. You can also see that from the number of removal I have in deck. So even though a turn 1 Noble Hierarch against those decks is a plus, it isn't always needed. In fact a turn 5 Noble Hierarch is also acceptable so that I can cast Martial Coup on turn 6 against aggro decks.
Against 5CC or other control decks I'm the aggro player and I would very much like to have Noble Hierarch on table on turn 1 but wouldn't cry or curse my luck if I don't. Because they always play CIPT lands and it feels like I'm always 1 turn ahead of them (which works ALWAYS to my advantage).
So even though a turn 1 Noble Hierarch is a fantastic start, it isn't a must for the deck.
LE
Really enjoyed reading the piece, let's see what other rogues does the Classic tide bring!
Is each person limited to only one entry per contest?
The old codes aren't supposed to be supported anymore, however, since they didn't put an expiration date on them they still will honor them. You'll have to contact Wizards' Customer Support at http://wizards.custhelp.com (you'll need to create an account there). They should be able to get you set up. If not, please email me at erikfriborg AT gmail DOT com and I'll put you in touch with folks inside WotC who can help you!. :)
I really like your writing style. Can't wait till your article on KScope....
If it works, it works. I put a few Mark of Asylum in on the sideboard, seemed to help againts fallouts and charms.
Aren't you worried about being able to cast Noble Hierarch on turn 1? Only four Forests. The Exotic Orchids MIGHT work... IF you're on the draw and IF they play a green source. Seems a bit optimistic.
Girdsman: From the release of Alara Reborn, I have seen a change in the metagame in which it has seemed to shift towards majority of BW Tokens along with new versions of Jund Aggro with the new cascade mechanic. This hasn't been the easiest metagame to compete against. The new vindicate doesn't help my deck at all and has been quite dreadful for me, at the same time your concern against fast aggro in my previous playtesting if they tend to get the obscene starts you can't compete against them. If they don't get the uber ridiculous draws then you are game versus any deck in the metagame since Kithkin, Mono-red and fast elves have 1 game plan and the Platinum Angels in the sideboard help alot versus all of these decks. Your boarding strategy verus aggro decks I tend to base it off there main deck or from what I have seen yet I always bring in 4x Platinum Angel and depending on what matchup specifically that would be all as I would take out the 4xPRimalclux as Path to Exile is widely used in those matchups. If you were to add Kitchen Finks then you would need to reduce a key matchup in removing a card for it and that being said this deck tends to win fast rather than slow as Kitchen Finks is a 3/2 body and against the matchups you want it against your deck should be tuned to beat it.
ConfusedMage: As stated above, this deck does quite well versus non-ridiculous fast aggro draws. After sideboard you defineatly bring in the 4x Platinum Angels as people don't expect them and they can stall a game if needed in order for you to win.
Feel free to comment and I will gladly respond, and thank you all for the comments.
Thanks for the comments.
@Bobby: Knight of the Reliquary works better for me than Giltspire. Especially against 5CC Giltspire has few targets if none, whereas Kinght of the Reliquary gets +2/+2 each turn (sac a forest get a panorama, sac the panorama and get a forest -> 2 lands in the yard in one turn). Knight of the Reliquary is my tool for games that don't end when they should end, if you know what I mean. When you have a Giltspire and your opponent has two 4/4 dragons, he wouldn't hesitate to attack. But when he has those 4/4's and you have a 10/10 Knight of the Reliquary, things look very differently.
@Hammy: I too think that Lorescale Coatl is a nice card but also think that it isn't that good to be tournament worthy. The ALA Block format, as you also know, is very fast and aggressive. Lorescale Coatl gets bigger in time and unfortunately "time" is scarce in Block.
@Hammy continues: Of course you're right; I'm looking at the future with the eyes and the mind and the knowledge and the experience of the past. But isn't it always like that? I merely tried to point out the cards one should expect to see more frequently than others.
There are actually two deck types which might emerge after this new block which I haven't mention in the article: R/W Boros and R/G Aggro. We should keep an eye on those decks as there are already plenty of new & old cards to build Tier-1 such decks.
@Hierarch44: But I think that we can at least agree on Vindicate and Pernicious Deed :)).
@Walkerdog: That depends on the format you are talking about. In almost all the formats, there are ways to cripple greedy manabases from Wasteland in Classic and Ghost Quarter in Extended to Fulminator Mage in Standard. But you're right that In ALA Block we don't have a way to punish such mana bases. But don't you think that Anathemancer is a little bit too much (considering it is Anathemancer + himself Unearth-ed from the graveyard (play it, sac to Bone Splinters, play it again))?
I understand what you're saying and I think that you're right too in what you're saying (considering you're talking about ALA Block format), but I still think that it is way too powerful.
Thanks again for the comments.
LE
Anathemancer was printed because there are very few hosers for multi-color mana-bases right now. Land D costs 4-5 mostly and there isn't much in the way of options for punishing otherwise-wonderful manabases. Now we have one.
misclicked...while they are not ptq pros they are mtgo top 8 ers which is the proof in the pudding
and umm you can try to make the comparisions but the dudes who write these articles actually ...REALLY ACTUALLY.. PLAY IN TOURNAMENTS ,DAILYS ,...q pros they are mtgo top 8ers which is pudding or rather proof in
One card is missing from your Bant deck....Knight of New Alara. This will be one of the first cards i toss into my bant deck. It's kinda funny how i'm not the only one to think that Bant is going to be VERY strong once reborn hits. Loved the artical, I've been running a Bant deck for the past week or so and it hasn't let me down yet, Turn 3 swining with Giltspire double strike for the 10 is just awesome!
t1- noble
t2 -Gilt
t3- Rafiq
So many times I have hit that combo and every time it's just a shock and awe that it just happened :)
Love the block articles on here, keep them up!